The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-10-27
Forbidden HONEY.
Sermon by Rev. DR.. Talmage IN the
Tabernacle.

the Publishing House
BROOKLYN, Oct. 16.-~SeVen hundred
and eighty -cne thousand three hundred
and sixteen dollars and tw nty-fOur cents
have been paid cash down in this church
for religious uses and Christian work dur
ing tile nineteen years of my ministry"
said the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, ID. D.,
in answer 10 the misrepresentation that
have been going through some of the re-
ligious papers depreciaing the work of the
Brooklyn tabernacle. After giving out the
hymn:
Our God, our help in ages past,
Orr hopefor years to come
DR.. Talmage preached sermon, the sub
ject of which was "Forbidden Honey" the
text being /. Samuel xiv, 43: Il did but
taste a little honey with the end of the rod
that was in my hand, and, 10, l must die.
DIR. Talmage said:
The honey bee is most ingenious
architect, Christopher Wren among in
sects, geometer drawing hexagons and
pentagons, freebooter robbing the fields
of pollen and aroma, wOndrOus creature
of God whose biography, written by Huber
and Swammerdam, is an enchantment for
any lover of nature. Virgil celebrated the
bee in his fable of Aristgus, and Moses,
and Samuel, and David, and Solomon, and
jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and st. John used
the delicacies of bee manufacture as a
Bible symbol. A miracle of formation is
the bee; five eyes, two tongues, the outer
having a sheath of protection, hairs on all
sides of its tiny body TO brush up the par
ticles of flowers, its flight SO straight that
all the world knows of the bee line. The
honey comb ia palace such as no one but
God could plan, and the honey bee con-
struct; its cells sometimes a dermitory and
sometimes a storehOuse and sometimes q
cemetery. These winged toilers first make
eight strips of wax, and by their antennR,
which are to them hammer, and chisel, and
square, and plumb line, fashion them for
use. Two and two, these workers shape
the wall. Ii an accident happens they put
up buttresses or extra beams to remedy the
damage. When about the year l776 an in
sect, before unknown, in the night time
attacked the bee hives all over Europe, and
the men who owned them were in vain try
ing to plan something to keep out the in
vader that was the terror of the bee hives
of the continent, it was found that every
where the bees had arranged for their own
protection, and built before their honey
combs an especial wall of wax with port
hole through which the bees might go to
and fro, but not large enough TO admit the
winged combatant, called the Sphinx
AtrOpos.
Do you know that the swarming of the
bees is divinely directed? The mother bee
starts out for a new home and because of
this the other bees of the hive get into an
excitement which raises the heat of the
hive some four degrees, and they must die
unless they leave their heated apartments,
fol tba hna iuIk
on the branch of tree, and cling to each
other and hold on until a committee Of two
or three have explored the region and found
the hollow of tree or rock not far off
from a stream of water, and they here set
up new colony, and ply their aromatic
industries, and give themselves to the
manufacture of the saccharine edible.
But who can tell the chemistry of that
mix ure of sweetness, part of it the very
life of the bee, and part of it the life of
the fields?
Plenty of this luscious product was
hanging in the woods of Beth-aven dur
ing the time of Saul and Jonathan. Their
army was in pursuit of an enemy that by
Gods command must be eXterminated.
The soldiery were positively forbidden to
stop TO eat anything until the work was
done. If they disoheyed they were ac-
cursed. Coming through the woods they
found place where the bees had been
busy, great honey manufactory. Honey
gathered in the hollow of the trees until
it lad oyerAoWed upon the ground in great
pro- usion of sweetne 8. Ali the army
obeyed orders and touched 1t not save
Jonathan, and he not knowing the military
order about abstinence dipped the end of
a stick he had i'll his hand into the can
died liquid, and as, yellow, and brown,
and tempting, il glowed ON the end of the
stick he put it to his mouth and ate the
honey. Judgment fell upon him, and but
for special intervention he would have
been slain. In my text Jonathan an
nounces his awful mistake: 81 did but
taste little honey with the end of the rod
that was in my hand, and, 10, must die. "
Alas, what multitudes of people in all ages
have been damaged by forbidden honey,
by which l mean temptation, delicious and
attractive, but damaging and destructive.
Literature fascinating but healthful
comes in this category. Where one good,
honest, healihful book is read now there
are 100 made up of rhetorical trash con-
sumed with avidity. When the boy on the
cars comes through with pile OF publica-
tions look over the titles and notice that
nine out of ten of the books IRE depicting
and injurious. All the way from New
York to Chicago or New Orleans notice
that Objectionable books dominate. Taste
for pure literature is poisoned by this
scum of the publishing house. Every
book in which sin triumphs over virtue,
or in which glamour is thrown over dis
sipation, or which leaves you at its last
line with less respect for the marriage in.
stitution and less adherence for the para.
mour, is depression Of your own moral
character. That book -bindery may be at
tractive, and the plot dramatic and start
ling, and the style of writing sweet as the
honey that Jonathan dipped up with his
rod, but your best interests forbid it, your
moral safety forbids it, your God forbids
it, and one taste of ii may lead to such bad |
results that you may have to say at the |
close Of the experiment or at the close of |
n misimproved lifetime: 81 did but taste !
n little honey with the rod that was in my /,
hand, and, 10, must die"
Corrupt literature is doing more to-day !
for the disruption of domestic Lille than any /
other cause Elopements, marital in !
lrigues, sly correspondence, fcilous |
names giyen Mt postollico windows, clun- !
iestne meetings in parks, and at ferry !
gates, and in hoIel parlors, and coniugul /
Deriuries are among the damnable results. |
When woman, young or old, gets her |,
head thoroughly stuffed with the modern |
novel she is in appalling peril. But some I
one will say: "The heroes are so adroi,ly ,
inavish, and the persons SO bewitchingly /
untrue, and the turn of the story so ex- /
luisite, and all the characters 80 enraptur- /
ng, cannot quit them" My brother, my
sister, you can find styles of literature Just
Is charming that will elevate md purify,
md ennoble, and Christianize whlo they
lleOse. The devil does not own all the /
loney. There ia wealth of good books
oming forth from our publishing houses
hat leaves no excuse for the choice of that
which is debauching 70 body, mind, and
oul. Go to some intelligent men or wo-
men, and nsk for list OF books that will
,e strengthening to your mental and moral